Alagaësian Anomaly - Paused
by Kaiimei
Summary: -Story in on Hiatus as of 15/09/2019, due to a mix of disinterest and sheer lack of knowledge of the Inheritance Cycle Universe and lore. Might be returned to, but do not hold out hope for that to occur soon.-
1. Chapter 1

**Alrighty! Third story time!**

**What's that? I'm writing too many stories at once? How about I'm not writing enough?!**

**In all seriousness though, I do genuinely want to do this, so at the very least I'm going to write out a chapter or two. If it gets received nicely and I can keep up, awesome. And if I can't keep up, well Hiatus is always an option, loathe as I am to use it!**

**So, without further ado...**

_**Chapter 1**_

* * *

"HEY!" The diminutive figure in red called out in a high pitch, stopping the fleeing figure in his tracks, narrowing her eyes and preparing herself when she heard the sound of an engine whining up.

"Persistent." The other figure muttered, pointedly not looking towards her, instead, they were looking down at the edge of the building he had fled to the top of. Preparing herself for a fight, the young girl wasn't ready for a bullhead to suddenly veer up from where it was hidden ahead of them, startling her for the moment needed, allowing the man to clamber up into said bullhead, before he turned around, revealing the glowing red dust crystal in his hand. Yelling out "End of the line, Red!", the man embued the crystal with a portion of his aura, casting it towards her, and surprising her when the crystal didn't go off upon impact.

Looking from the crystal to the man, little Red was just about to smirk and quip some snarky comment about prematurity when she noticed that the man was already aiming his cane towards her, or more accurately, the still very brightly pulsing crystal at her feet, before firing it. Calling upon her semblance, the girl burst herself into petals, just as the round from her opponents weapon impacted the crystal, sending forth a wave of flame, incinerating a good portion of the roof, as well as the position the petals were all floating in.

When the smoke cleared, a single scorched petal wafted down into the new skylight the building now adorned, leaving the orange-haired man to smirk, waving his hand to his compatriot, who nodded, and he threw a last glance back at the young idiot who tried to stop him, and paid the ultimate price for it.

* * *

"Dad, I know you're worried, but Ruby's a big girl, she can take care of herself."

Sighing, Taiyang Xiao-Long gave his older daughter a strong glare, before rubbing his eyes and falling heavily back down onto their couch. Despite his daughers re-assurances, the man simply couldn't shake the feeling that Ruby should have been back an hour ago at the latest. Certainly, she was as capable as her mother at losing herself to weapon magazines and forgetting the time, but there was a big difference between that, and being several hours past her normal arrival time.

Shaking his head, Taiyang moved to look out the window again, resigned to simply waiting for her to come back down that path, and then promptly doing a double-take when he saw none other than Qrow Branwen walking up the path towards his home. Despite the fading light, Tai had spent enough time around his old team-mate to recognise his clothes and weapon, though maybe Qrow could shed more light on the whole situation. Perhaps Ruby decided to go and train with him and got injured?

Pushing the questions aside, Tai went to the door, ready to greet his friend and ask him what was going on. But, before he could open the door up, Qrow smashed straight through it, apparently far drunker than usual, which was saying something. The man could drink enough to make a Vacuan swoon, and still be sober enough to remember not to pee on the floor. If he was this drunk, something serious must have happened.

A polite cough sounded through the door, and Tai again had to do a double-take, as Glynda Goodwitch was stood alongside Ozpin, in front of his home, setting every alarm bell in Taiyang's mind off simultaneously. Before he could bring any questions to the forefront of his mind, Ozpin opened his mouth.

* * *

The first thought in Ruby's head was a long, resounding '_Oww_', as the thudding headache she had woken up with was threatening to beat it's way out of her head entirely.

Her second thought was something along the lines of 'Where the hell am I?', as she took note in the fact that she was stuck somewhere, somewhere very dark and decidedly...moist.

Quickly clamping down on her rising panic, Ruby tried to take stock of herself, but found she was entirely incapable of actually moving. Try as she might, her body simply wouldn't respond to any attempts to move it, which did nothing to help her rising panic at the situation.

However, what truly confused Ruby was the odd feeling the situation was giving her, aside from sheer panic. She felt inexplicably safe, despite her surroundings being most definitely abnormal and remarkably terrifying.

As she tried once again to move her body, she was suddenly jostled, drawing the attempts at a yelp from her mouth, before she realized that, other than breathing and thinking, she was capable of practically nothing. Attempting to focus on whatever the hell just happened, she again was unexplainably jostled, despite no light in her surroundings, or any indication of how exactly she was moving.

Now reasonably unsettled, Ruby began desperately recollecting what happened, trying to find what could have caused this. She remembered entering From Dust Till Dawn, the name still drawing a small amount of amusement from her, finding a goon trying to rob her, and the subsequent smackdown she gave to all those idiots. Then their leader tried to escape, she chased him, and he blew up a dust crystal beneath her when she had dissolved into petals.

Despite racking her brains for an answer, Ruby simply could not come up with any reasonable thought as to how this situation could be described, aside from '_Bizarre_'. Perhaps she got stuck as petals and was now in a closed urn. She quickly decided that wasn't it, though the implications for that absolutely terrified her to no end. Being trapped as rose petals was not an end she would ever wish upon anyone but the Grimm.

Once again, her world shifted in an unexplainable way, and Ruby settled her mind as best she could, waiting as patiently as the hyper-active redhead was ever capable of doing so, resolved to wait for whatever was happening to simply happen.

Without warning, Ruby had the urge to attempt to move her body again, and found, much to her joy, that something responded to her. Pushing out every part of her that she was capable of moving, Ruby could herself encased in some material, though it felt quite strange, almost like marble, but covered in some weird liquid, the same liquid she could feel around her own body.

Pressing herself out as hard as she could, Ruby's attempts were rewarded by the sound of cracking, before, all at once, whatever was holding her captive broke apart, and she tumbled out with a strangled yelp.

A yelp matched by a similar sounding yelp from somebody else in the room, and a loud gasp of astonishment from another.

* * *

_**Earlier that day**_

* * *

"Come on you big beauty, just a little longer." Eragon urged quietly, watching as the deer ahead of him settled down in the brush, munching away carelessly on the grass surrounding it, entirely distracted from its surroundings, allowing Eragon to creep up closer to the beast, preparing an arrow.

Waiting for a few short moments to check his aim, the boy began releasing the arrow, when a flash of white and crimson light blinded him, completely disrupting his aim, sending the arrow into a nearby tree and frightening off most every animal nearby, not by the arrow but the sheer luminosity of the sudden glare.

Blinking away the large patches of blindness in his vision, Eragon had to blink again when two beautiful stones sat at his feet. One was a sapphire blue, shining in the fading light like a beacon.

The other was a deep crimson, straddling the line between black and red carefully, seeming to almost draw the light from the skies to magnify its image. Shrugging his shoulders, Eragon ran his hands over both stones, feeling nothing peculiar from the red one, but having an almost strange feeling of longing for the blue one. Picking both up, he figured they would at the very least get a few crowns, and if not, they'd be beautiful ornaments somewhere in his home.

Tucking both away safely in a satchel, the boy gazed wistfully towards the trail the deer had left in it's hurried rush, mentally imagining the bag of crowns that deep would be worth running off on its own into the forest.

Thinking no more on it, Eragon shouldered his newly-found burdens, and began the trek out of the spine, and back to Carvahall, already imagining the verbal lashing he'd have waiting for him upon returning home with no carcass to sell. At least the two precious-looking stones might help to alleviate some of that response.

But, before he could actually re-enter Carvahall, his wrist was grabbed, and he was harshly tugged by a mysterious figure with their face hidden beneath a hood towards a hut near to but not quite in the town. Realizing that the home they were approaching was one owned by the old story-teller, Brom, Eragon looked at his dragger closer and noted the slight whiteness on the tips of his slightly exposed beard, and concluding that it was likely that Brom, and that the man had something important to tell him.

His mind immediately returned to the stones he found, and he had to restrain himself from yanking his arm back and running away in fear he'd accidentally stolen them from Brom. Surely, the old man wouldn't want to actually harm him if that were the case. The worst-case scenario would be that Brom could tell him that he in fact owned those stones, and Eragon could return them, and maybe even get a reward for his effort. Though how Brom could know that he'd found the stones left a gaping hole in his idea that Brom even knew he had them. No matter what, running away would achieve very little.

Throwing open his door, the figure quickly swept his view around the hut, and, apparently satisfied, hurled Eragon inside, closing the door behind him, and removing his hood, confirming to Eragon that it was in fact Brom who was dragging him. Though, that thought didn't relieve him much when he saw the anger, confusion, and most importantly, worry adorning the old mans face.

"Eragon, I'm going to ask this one time. What the hell have you done?" The old man asked quickly, much to Eragons confusion, broadcasting this fact quite clearly on his uncomprehending face. All he did was pick up a pair of shiny stones!

Sighing, Brom palmed his face, before gesturing a hand towards his satchel. Picking up on his intentions, Eragon quickly unlimbered the bag from his back, opening it and revealing the blue stone to Brom, who looked at it with a fleeting recognition, before he hid that back behind his iron-wall of mental discipline, and gesturing quickly to Eragon, beckoning him closer.

"Alright, listen. I don't have time to explain this properly, so you must learn fast. Eragon, what you've got there...is a dragon egg." Brom said quickly, not missing the brief glance Eragon threw both the egg, and more confusingly the satchel which housed the familiar egg, before his face morphed into terror.

"A-A...Dragon Egg?" Eragon asked hesitantly, hoping he was somehow mistaken. Eragon, as all who lived within the Empire, knew of Galbatorix, and knew what he'd do if more dragon eggs were ever found. Glancing back towards the satchel again, he looked towards Brom, who simply looked at him confused, though his confusion morphed into pure astonishment when Eragon rolled out the second egg.

"A second one? There shouldn't be a second one..." Brom muttered to himself, too quiet for Eragon to hear, though he did hear the muttering, in general, he couldn't make out the words themselves though.

However, his musing was interrupted when the second egg became moving rather violently, surprising both the men present, especially Brom, who knew that this dragon should most certainly not be hatching for a good long while, narrowing his eyes in suspicion that the egg wasn't, in fact, a true egg, but was a trap.

Before either men could attempt anything, with a sound like a yelp, and a rather violent destruction, the egg all but erupted, sending egg shrapnel and the majority of the fluid all over the room, covering Eragon, who was currently getting more red over the noise he'd made when the egg exploded, whilst Brom simply ignored the fluid dripping from him, instead focused on the Black and Red dragon currently looking around the room, a scarily intelligent glint in its eyes.

Brom knew from his own past that dragons were far more intelligent than any mere beast, but when they were young, they were still rather ignorant of the world, and while they were born with an innate knowledge, just like instinct for animals, about certain things, that didn't excuse them from still acting in a child-like manner. It fell to the rider to teach the dragons about the world outside of their born knowledge.

What really caught his attention, however, was the pure mental presence this dragon was somehow letting out, things that should have been being sent only to it's rider, a mixture of awe, confusion, and most notably terror, though it was all, once again overshadowed when words the dragon could not possibly know erupted from its equally impossible maw.

"WHAT THE HELL?"

* * *

**Alrighty.**

**Yes, I know. It's short for a pilot chapter of mine. The other two were both over 4900 words, this one is a meagre 2500. I didn't want to get massively invested if this isn't received very well, so I didn't write as much into it. I also jumped perspectives a lot more than normal in this story.**

**So, as I said in my authors note chapter for Crimson Dovah, tell me, what do you think? I am definitely writing this story at some point, since I like the idea too much to pass up, but if it's not liked very much I may well put this on Hiatus until I'm more comfortable with it.**

**I don't really have a big plan for this yet, I just had a serious hankering to write this. And, please, if I wrote something stupid, please understand that I threw this together in just under an hour and a half, so don't go too harsh on me =P.**

**Next Chapter: No idea, depends on the reaction to this. But within the next two weeks at ABSOLUTE Maximum.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello everybody!**

**I appreciate the response this got, and I'm going to definitely be running all 3 stories for the near future at the very least, though if it starts wearing me out I may slow them down, or pause one for a while.**

**Now, my main focus is on Crimson Dovah, with this and Watching Rose being more slow-burn stories, but that doesn't mean I won't put just as much effort into making them awesome!**

**To answer a question somebody raised about the first chapter:**

**Yes, Alagaesian Dragons aren't capable of physical speech, they talk using their minds. However, Ruby is an anomaly. She was hatched within the hour of being found, she was freely broadcasting her emotions to everyone in the room, and, most notably, she spoke. That's the whole point, Ruby is breaking the norm in far too many ways to be lumped in with the regular dragons.**

**Well, enough of that, and on with the chapter...**

_**Chapter 2**_

* * *

For a brief moment, nobody moved. Brom was busily trying to process the fact that this dragon had just...spoken. As in, physical words, rather than the mind-speaking that all dragons used to communicate. Eragon was mostly in shock that a dragon had just hatched in front of him, considering an hour ago he was hunting regular animals in the woods as a poor farmers boy.

And Ruby had it worst of all. She'd gone from normal to world-twisted-around-like-a-beyblade levels of insanity in the span of what felt like a few minutes, though who knows how much time had passed since she was in that darkness.

Glancing around, Ruby found herself noting a few things all at once. The first, and most obvious, was that she was tiny. As in, about 2 foot high, if the two people stood nearby were any indication. And, as Ruby could actually move now, she realized that, whatever had happened, she was not normal anymore.

The biggest give-away was the fact that when feeling out for her limbs, she could feel something on her back that responded to her attempts at motion, though having entirely new limbs atop the limbs that had been moved to awkward positions was an incredibly disorienting feeling. She also found that she could twist her neck far more than normal, briefly reminding herself of an ostrich with how flexible her neck was, though that thought was pushed very far back when Ruby realized that one of the two people stood in front of her had his hand on a dagger strapped to his belt, and was holding his left hand outwards towards her, almost like he was trying to ward her away from approaching.

All of a sudden, a feeling Ruby couldn't possibly describe properly, but attributed to ice-cold needles, drilled itself into her head, causing her to yelp and flail backwards, shaking her head to attempt to remove the excruciating feeling. Ruby had felt pain before, training to be a huntress was full of it, but that was physical pain, cuts and bruises are nothing like the feeling of having your head be drilled into., whilst you're awake.

Through the pain, Ruby instinctively tried to protect herself, calling upon her semblance to get away and hope the pain stopped. But as she took a step, she immediately realized that, with whatever happened to her, for some reason, her semblance wasn't working.

All the while, Eragon was watching, horrified at whatever was happening, helplessly observing as this tiny black and red dragon flailed its head from side to side in obvious agony. Looking to his side, he realized that, whatever was happening, it was Brom causing it, as he had his eyes closed, muttering to himself, and a very faint glow was coming through the cloth binding his left hand.

Looking back at the tiny black and red dragon, and feeling rage well up from inside him for practically torturing a creature out of egg for all of a minute, Eragon decided to try and stop Brom in whatever he was doing, laying a hand on his shoulder and shaking him, giving up when Brom barely responded, and settled for slugging him across the jaw, breaking his concentration, and simultaneously breaking his mental attack on Ruby to look towards Eragon in surprise.

At the same time, Ruby had darted out of the hut at full speed the instant she was able to actually think past the pain, and was fleeing for the nearby treeline as fast as she possibly could, stumbling every now and again on account of her new body, which she was finding remarkably easy to adjust to.

* * *

"What the hell was that?" Eragon yelled at Brom, torn between anger and fear, whilst Brom was far too busy apparently muttering to himself. Grabbing his wrist, Eragon yanked the cloth away, hoping to shock Brom into actually responding, which he did so, though he didn't expect it to be at the point of a dagger.

Realizing he'd almost stabbed Eragon, Brom quickly sheathed his dagger, not even bothering to cover his Gedwey ignasia mark, and looking back towards the shattered remains of the egg with a frown, shaking his head and quickly rolling the other egg into its bag, the one he recalled stealing, and pushed the questions away, resolved to ask them at another point, for he knew that if that dragon was seen, it would severely interfere with his already tattered plans.

"Eragon, come here." He said briskly, looking towards the boy, who seemed to be absolutely furious at him, though he'd rather the boy be safe and furious, than happy and dead. "Listen to me. That dragon shouldn't exist. I can't tell you much, but this egg is the only one that isn't under Galbatorix's thumb. The other two are in Uru'baen. A fourth egg appearing, and hatching within an hour of being hatched? I had to be sure that the dragon wasn't a trick. Now, take this-" He quickly thrust the egg-carrying bag into Eragon's hands, "-and find somewhere safe to stay for a while. I need to go track that dragon down, and quickly. If it's seen, things will definitely not go well, for it or for us. Now go!"

He punctuated his yell by shoving Eragon strongly towards the door, heading out with him and closing the door to his home. Brom threw a quick glance over his shoulder at Eragon, before shaking his head and following the tracks the dragon left, trusting Eragon to at least find somewhere safe for the egg, until he could think his way out of the problem.

First big question, why did Arya send him the Sapphire egg? She should have been ferrying it between the Varden and the Elves, so for it to appear so close to Carvahall, something must have happened to her to cause such an extreme reaction, like sending the egg to him, or as close as she was able, meaning she was in a high-stress situation, maybe even active combat. Sending it to him must have been the only thing she could think of.

Secondly, what the hell was up with the second egg? Galbatorix went on a rampage when the blue egg was stolen, though he was placated by making sure the other two eggs were unobtainable. If one of the other two eggs were to be taken against all odds, he would probably have torn his way through Du Weldenvarden and the Beor mountains after whatever poor sods had taken it.

Striking that out, Brom drew a blank in terms of where that egg could possibly have come from. It wasn't one he recognized, that much was obvious, and he believed the three Galbatorix had were the last eggs in the land. Clearly that assumption was incorrect, otherwise, he wouldn't be traipsing through this forest right now after an impossible dragon.

And why had it hatched so swiftly? Eragon had certainly laid his hand upon the egg, but it had been maybe an hour since he'd found those eggs, there was no way it hatched for him in that time. Plus, it didn't even try to approach him. All dragons would have at least taken a few steps forwards towards their destined, even at threat of a dagger or magic. And it certainly wasn't bound to Brom. Even ignoring the fact that he'd already had a dragon, he felt absolutely nothing like his bond to his own dragon, Saphira. He remembered when she first hatched for him and felt that pull to place his hand atop her. In comparison, this dragon had nothing similar.

So many questions, and Brom wasn't even sure the dragon itself would be able to answer them. For now, he resolved to catch it and see about getting at least a few answers from it. Perhaps it knew of its own circumstances and could shed some light on what was going on.

Silently and swiftly he ran through the forest, barely disturbing the brush and following the dragon as quickly as possible, noting with some small amount of relief that the dragon had gone completely the opposite way to any civilization, so aside from a wandering hunter, it shouldn't run into any people out there, at least until he could find it and hopefully convince it to return to his hut.

Thinking back on it, Brom shook his head, determined to keep focused, despite his own voice telling him that he should have gone about that some other way, instead he'd probably alienated this dragon to the point of permanent mistrust at best, and outright hatred at worst. Brom had suffered mental attacks like the one he'd used before, and it was far from a pleasant experience. But, he still felt firm in the idea that he had to be absolutely sure that the dragon was genuine, and from the cursory glance he got before Eragon distracted him, well, at the very least said dragon wasn't being controlled by anybody. Though he couldn't make much sense of anything else, as if the dragon had already figured out how to protect her memories despite being an hour old, he could definitely make out the fact that it had absolutely no prior allegiance to Galbatorix, nor any of his underlings.

Rubbing his eyes, Brom pushed his thoughts away and focused on the trail the dragon had left through the path, growing more and more confident when more recent signs of passage like swaying branches and falling leaves were presenting themselves to him...there!

Running a decent distance ahead of him, the dragon was surprisingly agile, just another oddity to throw onto the pile, using its momentum to bounce from trees and rocks over and around obstacles, never fully losing their momentum, though their body size made it difficult for them to actually pick up a lot of speed, allowing Brom to close the distance quickly and scoop said dragon up with an arm, holding it carefully but firmly as it struggled.

"Stop struggling, I meant no harm." He said, quickly learning that said dragon was a rather feisty fighter, headbutting his chin and trying to lever its way out of his arms with all their limbs simultaneously, though his experience with dragons let him keep his hold.

Sighing, he dredged up his memories of the Ancient Language, and spoke, immediately freezing Ruby in place.

_"I mean you no harm. Please stop trying to escape." _He uttered, watching with a slight smile as the dragon stopped to look at him wide-eyed.

"W-What was that?" The dragon said. Actually said. Brom had to steel himself as he almost dropped her in shock at hearing actual words come from a dragon, now sure that this dragon was definitely not like any other. Though, said dragon being able to converse would be a large boon to his plans, as all baby dragons would take a while before being able to communicate mentally, which would prove irritating to deal with if this dragon was incapable of talking.

"That was the Ancient Language. You do not recognise it from memory, but all Dragons instinctively know it." At the dragons utterly bewildered face, he elaborated. "Putting it in it's crudest terms, it allows us to use magic, and, when speaking in the Ancient Language, you cannot tell a lie. I said 'I mean you no harm. Please stop trying to escape.' "

"Okay, but why do I know it?" The little crimson dragon murmured, shifting in his arms as he loosened his hold on it slightly, eliciting a sigh from him.

"I did just say all dragons instinctively know it. Despite not being taught in it, you would know to recognise the words, even if you cannot actually comprehend their meaning. Despite not knowing what I said, you would know that I meant you no harm. I can't explain it much further, as it isn't something the Dragon Riders researched much into."

"THAT DOESN'T ANSWER MY QUESTION!" The dragon suddenly yelled, startling Brom, who very nearly dropped the dragon in surprise. "What. Happened. To. Me?" The dragon asked slowly, clearly trying it's hardest to stay calm, bewildering Brom.

"What do you mean? You hatched, and ran away, what more is there to happen?" He asked quickly, noting the dragon resuming it's squirming to get out of his arms, which he reluctantly allowed, carefully laying it down and watching as it took a few steps away and spun back around to face him.

"N-no, but I-W..." Quivering, the dragon curled in on itself, wrapping its tail around itself and ducking its head behind its tail, shaking quite strongly. "I-I was fighting Torchwick, and then b-beat his goons a-nd chased him up, th-hen h-h-he..Oh n-no. I..."

Brom merely watched, insanely curious about what this dragon had seen in its egg, when two little words spilt from its mouth, freezing him in place when he approached to comfort it.

"I-I died..."

* * *

**Round 2, game set and my god that was fun to write.**

**A FAIR WARNING TO ALL Y'ALL! This story is going to be a bit more brutal. Expect more moments like Chapter 1 of Watching Rose, the OVR of team ROVR death scene. Not to the level of that constantly, but this world will be a lot less happy-go-lucky and cute Ruby, and more brutality and horrifying concepts. I warn you all now, I have some pretty...brutal plans in mind for Ruby.**

***_Rubs hands together mischievously_* True names are a scary thing to play with.**

**Oh, also, I noticed that chapter 1 of this story managed to, through all possibility, garner the attention of the mastermind behind A Rose's Scales, Reversal and Reconstruction, none other than Pokeman1280.**

**I won't fan-squeal too much, just...go and read that stuff, it's incredible. Seriously. I love how deep everybody's psychological scars run, and how intricately crafted the whole damn thing is. Gah, no more fangasming.**

**(Sorry najex, you're awesome too buddy! Everybody go show him some love as well, his By Courage and Love story is also awesome!)**

**Next Chapter: 21st of July**


	3. Chapter 3

**Not much to say this week, to be honest. I guess just thanks for the kind words!**

**Oh, there's something. All of the chapters of this and Watching Rose are now going to be 2500 words minimum per chapter. I know all the chapters of this were more than that anyway, but it's just a baseline. I refuse to upload lower than that now, though I will probably target higher word counts, around 3000 words, when I feel like I can push the story far enough in one chapter.**

**And, on with the chapter...**

_**Chapter 3**_

* * *

Once again Brom found himself gaping at this little bundle of anomalies in front of him. Resisting the urge to clear his ears since by this point anything insane this little dragon said was probably what he actually heard, he instead crouched down and ever so slowly put his hand towards the dragon, who made no attempts to move away from him, gently laying his hand on it's head and petting it, trying to calm it down.

"Alright. It's okay. Whatever you saw isn't happening anymore." Brom said, mentally laughing at his abysmal attempts at comforting, far too used to violence and death to know what exactly the little dragon even needed.

Though, surprisingly enough, his words and gentle head-rubbing seemed to bring the poor dragon out of it's stupor at least somewhat, enough for them to regain some focus in their tear-filled eyes and give him a shaky smile.

"T-thanks." The dragon said slowly, closing her eyes when he gave her a return smile.

"You're welcome. Now then, I believe introductions are in order, hmm?" Brom said, eyeing the dragon as it shifted around and looked at their surroundings. Once it was comfortable, it looked back at him with a slow nod. "Right, well, I'm Brom. The boy who found your egg is Eragon, and we're in the town of Carvahall. Now, you are...?" Brom said slowly, trying to figure out just how much this dragon saw.

"I'm...I w-was Ruby...Ruby Rose." The little black and red dragon said shakily.

"Well, hello there Ruby. Now, forgive me if this is presumptuous, but that's a female name, aye?" When the dragon nodded, Brom continued, "Well, I guess that means I can stop calling you it in my head! Well Ruby, I must say it's a pleasure to meet you." He said, smiling at the dragon and trying to get her used to him enough that he could try to convince her to come back to his hut, away from prying eyes. The woods have eyes and Brom would really rather avoid anything noticing the new presence and word getting back to Galbatorix somehow, that was attention he and Eragon certainly didn't need, and this little dragon would probably also not like being hunted down by the Ra'zac like a dog.

"Now-" Brom said, standing up and brushing his knees of the loose dirt and leaves stuck to him, "-we should probably head back. I know you probably don't trust me right now, but it's imperative we keep your existence a secret. I don't know if you noticed the second egg you hatched next to, but that one was stolen from the Black King, Galbatorix. If he finds out where the egg is, our lives will be very short and very painful. We need to leave this area immediately and make haste towards the Beor Mountains, there are...allies there, they'll shelter us from the King until we can fight back."

"Woah woah woah-" Shaking her head, Ruby took a few clumsy steps back from Brom. "-What do you mean, f-fight back? I don't know if you noticed this Brom, but I'M A FREAKING DRAGON! I don't want to fight some Black King on a world I don't care about, I just want to g-go home!" Ruby yelled, slumping down again at the thought of home."

Rubbing his chin, Brom's eyes flashed for a moment as an idea popped into his head. "You know, if there were any spells to allow you to go home, Galbatorix would probably have them locked away in his keep. Ever since he came to power he's been hoarding magic, and probably before that as well. But, to gain access, he'd need to be defeated."

Huffing, Ruby raised her head to glare at Brom. "Don't think I don't see what you're trying to do. I may be a bit young but I'm not stupid."

"Just...look, at the very least you have to admit that heading to potential allies is a safer bet than waiting around for the King to find out you're here, where he'll come and either kill you outright or force you into servitude." Brom said, hands raised in a helpless gesture.

Outwardly, Ruby was pretty calm and collected, but in her mind, a thousand thoughts were racing through her head. She died, now she was a freaking dragon, there was some big evil king she had to defeat to find a way home, a mysterious man was trying to convince her to find allies, and other things she was too confused to even consider raced by. Tired of arguing, Ruby just slowly nodded her head, slumping down when a wave of tiredness overcame her, as the adrenaline of the entire situation wore off and exhaustion set in.

Chucking, Brom looked over Ruby before slowly stepping forward, keeping his hands in view the whole time. "Well, I'm going to carry you back to the hut now, okay? I swear I won't do anything more to hurt you."

Nodding again, Ruby tilted her head at his peculiar wording. "Anything more? So that was you e-earlier?" She said, wincing at the sheer memory of what felt like her head was being cracked open.

"Yes it was, and I apologize for how painful it is. Your egg shouldn't exist. The other that Eragon found was the only one not in the clutches of the Black King, and I had to be sure you weren't a trick of some kind. He would probably leap for joy if he managed to trick us all into letting you in and you turned out to be a spy or assassin of some kind. I won't do it ever again, but at the moment it was my best option."

Shaking her head, Ruby just went limp as Brom carefully picked her up and laid her on his arms, turning and making his way back to his hut swiftly. Not worried about being followed now,m Ruby took the time to gaze around the forest, wincing at the absurdly obvious trail she left through all the bushes, while Brom simply chuckled at the dragon noticing the path she made. "You weren't exactly hard to follow, before you ask."

"Hmph, I wasn't going to." Ruby replied, laying her head down and keeping her eyes in the way they were going, feeling Broms arms shake slightly as he quietly chuckled. Closing her eyes, Ruby let her other senses roam free, and almost headbutted Brom when she realized just how strong her other senses were. Taking a deep breath through her nose, she could smell...everything. She could smell burning, presumably from Carvahall, she could smell the scents of animals that walked nearby in the forest, she could smell practically everything about Brom, the slight tinge of alcohol, the oil he used on his sword, the smoke from his smoking, everything.

And, when she turned her attention to her hearing, she could hear plenty as well, so much that it became a jumbled mess. But, after focusing on it, and trying to keep her mind from drifting to how Faunus must feel all the time, Ruby could eventually make out individual sounds, like the quiet munching of grass, the gentle rustling of leaves, then a new sound sounded, one Ruby took a moment to identify, almost like a twanging sound...

"MOVE!" Ruby yelled suddenly, kicking hard against Brom and knocking him over, when an arrow flew through the air he was just occupying, embedding itself in a nearby tree. Immediately he drew his sword and followed the arrow trajectory back, cursing under his breath at his luck as a solitary Imperial Soldier was looking at him with surprise, bow still held in one hand, though his surprise turned to a scowl and he cast his bow away, drawing a broadsword and charging him with a cry.

When the man crossed blades with Brom, it was clear to Ruby that while he looked imposing with his black armor and red tunic, he wasn't a match for the other man, who quickly disarmed and decapitated him, much to Ruby's disgust. But, not allowing her a single moment to so much as talk, Brom picked her back up and made his way back at a much hurried pace, ignoring Ruby entirely, a fact that worried her more than she'd ever admit.

* * *

At the same time, Eragon was making his way through the village, mind racing. After leaving the hut, or rather being forced away by Brom, Eragon racked his mind for a place to hide, though, he thought angrily, Brom could have been a bit more clear when he just said "for a while."

Shrugging his shoulders, and checking the bag that held the still unhatched dragon egg, Eragon made his way into the forest, his mind still reeling from the revelation of finding two dragon eggs. Pushing that aside, he settled on finding a place to wait for Brom, quickly going through ideas and scratching them off, before remembering an abandoned hut near to the town but still close enough to the spine to ward off passers-by, which would be somewhere Brom would likely think to go to as well.

His mind set, Eragon made his way to the hut quickly, throwing glances over his shoulder back towards Carvahall, shaking his head at getting wrapped up in all the insanity and regretting ever wishing for an exciting life.

After an indeterminate period of time walking, he finally reached the building, noting that it still seemed sturdy enough to live in for however long Brom planned on having him wait, and slowly entered, keeping his ears sharp and listening out for any kind of sounds to indicate somebody living there. After going through the few rooms the building had and concluding that it was still abandoned, Eragon laid the bag on his back down carefully and rolled out the egg to observe it, marvelling at how similar it was to a large Sapphire, and thinking back on the egg the other dragon was hatched from, how the color of the egg closely matched it's own coloration, and determining that whatever dragon hatched from this egg would likely be the same rich blue.

Shaking his head at letting his thoughts wander so, after ensuring that the egg wasn't going to roll around anywhere, he set about preparing the building for living in, clearing out the fireplace, dusting out the meagre bedding, opening the window-panels and generally making the place at least somewhat livable.

It was as he was doing this that he noticed Brom walking towards the building, the small hatchling in his arms for some reason, and a neutral expression on his face, and walked out to meet him.

Raising a hand in greeting, he was met wit ha nod from Brom and a stare from the little dragon, making him take a step back at just how closely the dragon was watching him, before it broke eye contact and went back to watching their surroundings.

"Ignore her, she's not happy about how I dealt with a...problem." Brom said, putting the dragon on the ground gently and striding over to the hut, beckoning Eragon to follow him, while the dragon just wandered about a little aimlessly. "Now, I understand it may be a bit much to take in, but, well...depending on what happens, in the next week or two we may have to both leave for the Beor Mountains. Now-" Raising a hand quickly, he silenced Eragons argument, "-I know you would probably rather stay here, but circumstances being as they are, you may have no choice. Now, Ruby over there-" he gestured with his head at the door, where the dragon, Ruby apparently, was now wandering in, "-would be hunted down in moments if Galbatorix knew she was here. If he also knew that one of his prized eggs were here, he'd send the entire kingdom after us."

Sighing, Brom laid a hand on Eragons shoulder. "Now, you touched that egg, and while I don't like it, I don't want to risk a dragon hatching while we're travelling. So we'll stay here for a week or two and see wha-"

Interrupting the pair, Ruby butted her head against Brom's hand, prompting him to look down at her in question. "I-I don't know why, but I can feel...the...the dragon in that egg is waking u-up." She said slowly, raising both men's eyebrows and causing Brom to just hold his head in his hands.

"Of course you can, of bloody course."

Not even bothering to explain why that's abnormal, Brom simply looked back at Eragon with a scowl. "Well, that decides it then. I guess congratulations are in order Eragon, you're going to be a dragon rider. Don't bother arguing, if the hatchling-" Ruby growls a little at the title, though Brom ignored it, "-says it's so, it probably is so. So, get your affairs in order, we're going to the mountains when your dragon is capable. We'll have time while the dragons grow, so you don't have to say goodbye instantly, but you will have to leave eventually."

Laying his hand upon Eragons shoulder again, Brom drew the boys lowered gaze up to his own. After a moment, the boy simply nodded, shrugging the hand off his shoulder to leave the house and head back to Carvahall. Turning to face Ruby, Brom folded his arms, looking at the dragon with a sharp eye. "So, any more abilities I should know about?"

Ruby stuck her tongue out at him. "It's not my fault, alright? How am I meant to know what I am and am not meant to be able to do now?! I can hear stuff far clearer than before, and I can smell everything, which is horrible. I can feel the dragon in that egg waking up, and I can't use my semblance." Not noticing the confusion on Broms face, Ruby continued. "I can feel my aura still, but it's like it's...muted. Like someone turned down the volume on a scroll. I don't even want to think about that now."

Turning her head back upwards to face Brom, Ruby elaborated. "Brom, where I came from, things were way more advanced than here. It's like I went back in time. Just for confirmation, does the word 'Grimm' mean anything to you?" Ruby asked quickly.

"Well, we use it as a normal word, like grim tidings ahead, but beyond that no, why?" he replied, watching as Ruby slumped down again.

"That means I'm not even on my world anymore. Grimm were creatures of darkness with no soul, who hunted people down relentlessly. If you don't even know what those are, then it means either I'm so far in the future that technology has been forgotten somehow and the Grimm are all gone, or I'm on another world. If I went back in time the Grimm would still be there, they've always hunted humans. And since you don't seem to know what aura or semblances are, that just solidifies it. I-" Ruby's breath hitched for a second. "I just wish Yang was here. Or Qrow. Or D-dad."

Kneeling down again, Brom stuck his hand out and put it back on Ruby's head, gently rubbing it and calming her down. "Well hey, at least you can look forward to going back to them when we overthrow Galbatorix, huh?" And chuckling when she looked up through tear-filled eyes and gave him a small smile.

"Guess I'll just have to then. For them."

* * *

**Okay, yes, I know, the story for this is really not going well. This chapter honestly feels like the weakest chapter I've ever written in all my fanfictions. When I began writing this, I was excited for it, but I really am struggling with it. This is definitely my weakest story on the site, even Feathered Rose feels like it's better than this drivel.**

**Not gonna give in though! In the words of Inspirational Japanese Fisherman guy, "Never give up!" I will continue on this, and as I said at the top, minimum of 2500 words for each chapter. I just worry that you guys won't enjoy this chapter, so please, give me your honest, and sometimes absolutely brutal, opinions on this chapter, I want to know what you liked, what you didn't like, how I over-used Ruby slumping down 3 separate times!**

**Next Chapter: 28th of July**


	4. Chapter 4

**IM SORRY! I said I was going to do two chapters to make up for it, but Feathered Rose just kept calling me! This one is longer than usual, but I feel like it's still not the same as what I hoped to do originally. Oh well, when the story calls the story calls, huh?**

**Massive thank you to Najex for pointing some pretty major things out to me. I still have my own plan for certain things, but not having the group enter Teirm would have changed canon a bit too much for me to be comfortable not contradicting myself. If I never had the prophecy and then brought it up later, I'd look a bit of an idiot, huh?**

**Anyway, on with the chapter...**

_**Chapter 4**_

* * *

A week had passed, and there weren't any signs that Galbatorix knew where the eggs were sent. No extra guards were in town, no Ra'zac stalking through the forests, nothing to indicate that they needed to move.

Of course, this did nothing for Ruby, who by this point had gotten used to her new body, able to quite happily run, jump, glide, and act much like a normal dragon. She couldn't fly yet, but Brom explained that her wings simply weren't big enough to provide enough lift for it. She could glide, but actual flight was still a step too far.

Brom had taken Ruby under his metaphorical wing and began teaching her about the world she found herself in. He told her of the different races, of the dragons, the current situation surrounding Galbatorix, all the knowledge he was able to impart upon her, and while she took it in, she still hated learning with a passion, a holdover from her time in Signal listening to her father drone on about boring things. She would learn, but that was because when your father was a teacher, you couldn't hide bad grades from him.

While he was curious, Brom was careful to not try and push Ruby about her home, trusting her to reveal any necessary information in time, and not letting his curiosity get in the way of his slowly mending relationship with the little dragon, which was difficult considering how they first met. For all intents and purposes she appeared as a wild dragon, unbound to a rider, but she could talk physically, rather than just with her mind, and she knew things she shouldn't. In all his time Brom had never encountered a dragon with memories of some kind of before-life, though perhaps all dragons had a life before coming to Alagaesia and always forgot it before existing in their world, Brom simply didn't know.

Eragon was bouncing off the walls with excitement and fear, begging Ruby to confirm for him repeatedly that the other egg he found was still hatching, much to her irritation. Brom tried to get Ruby to explain just how she knew that the sapphire egg was hatching, but all she could say was that she could 'feel it', which wasn't exactly useful, but it was nice to know, even if it meant even more questions that Brom had which couldn't be answered. It was times like that which made Briom wish more than ever that the riders were still around, they'd likely be able to help with Ruby's uniqueness.

And, at the week mark, the egg finally hatched, in a far more delicate way than the explosion of egg shards which was Ruby's hatching. Watching closely, Ruby saw as the dragon elegantly pushed their way from the egg, not a single shard being thrown from the slow and careful exit. The first thing Ruby saw of the other dragon was a beautiful blue, much like their egg, before their head poked out and glanced around, and Ruby tried and failed to stop a giggle at the comparison to a cat glancing around at the world.

Said giggle was enough to bring the blue dragon out of its observation and look at Ruby, though it quickly dismissed her in favor of Eragon, bounding over to him and nudging his hand happily. Ruby had been warned, but it was still a pretty surprising affair to watch Eragon fall in agony of the Gedwey ignasia forming on his hand, the other dragon watching as he recovered and pounced on him, nuzzling his neck and curling up on his legs.

The last occupant of the room just smirked at the sight, reminded of his own dragon and her hatching.

* * *

"We have to leave, now."

Brom burst into the hut, his voice strangely panicked as he gathered up the bags he'd prepared throughout the house, and Ruby assisted him, leaping up to bags hidden on top of shelves to drag them down. "Guards?" Ruby asked when she had a moment, though she frowned when he shook his head and replied with a voice like ice.

"Worse." That was all Brom said, ignoring her to head around the hut piling up their travelling bags by the entrance. Frowning, he cocked his head to the side, before stomping towards Ruby and glaring at her. "Where are Eragon and Saphira?" He growled.

"How am I meant to know? They're probably still following your instructions and training or something." Ruby replied, glaring back at Brom who darted out of the door, leaving Ruby to drag the rest of the bags together, griping all the way.

The first thing Ruby noticed that was wrong was the smell that began permeating the room, invading Ruby's nose and forcing her to wince and try to stifle it. The next was the sounds of a pair of footsteps hurriedly approaching the hut. The last thing wrong about her current situation came in the form of the door being smashed open, revealing two black-cloaked figures staring back at her, though only for a second before they both drew blades and one charged her.

Her training as a huntress kicked in at the sight of a blade racing towards her face, and Ruby avoided the strike, backing off instinctively to get room and draw Crescent Rose, cursing herself when she remembered her situation and willingly giving ground in a fight.

Her opponent, taking advantage of the ground given, darted forward again, striking fast and hard, pressing Ruby backwards and towards a wall, whilst the other stood ready to assist their team-mate but was more focused on keeping an eye out, presumably for Brom.

That was all that Ruby could afford to think about before returning her full focus to the fight. It helped that Ruby was used to far faster aura-enhanced combat, or she would have lost her head multiple times already, but she was at a major disadvantage from not having any kind of...weapon.

Snarling at her own slowness, Ruby dove under the blade of her opponent, darting up inside of their guard and jumping over them, twisting her leg around so her claws faced the correct way, running her claws straight up its face and getting caught on something which stole most of her momentum, ripping something off her targets face to let Ruby hear the screams of her now seemingly crippled opponent, whilst the other occupant of the room charged forward to relieve their ally, warding Ruby off with fast and calculated strikes, aimed not at directly attacking her, but pushing her back.

Giving the ground up for her opponent, Ruby watched as the figure flicked their concealed eyes between her and her previous opponent before making some kind of clicking sound, a sound that her now-maimed opponent responded to. A few more moments passed before more footsteps could be heard, and Brom entered the hut, taking one look at the cloaked figures and drawing his own sword, charging at the still-standing figure before it could react and attempting to run it through with his blade, though it blocked the attack with its sword with a single hand, using the other to grab its partner and flee through the door at a speed that, whilst not as fast as Ruby's semblance, was still beyond what Ruby assumed somebody could possibly move at unenhanced.

Watching them run, Brom knew he wouldn't be able to catch up to a fleeing Ra'zac, instead turning his attention to Ruby and the dripping blood from her claws with a faint smile. "I'm surprised, Ruby. I know you said you were a huntress, but holding off two Ra'zac is not something a hunter could casually claim."

Deciding to correct him later, Ruby just shook her head, bounding over to the pile of bags and quickly slipping herself through one of the straps, hoisting the bag over her back to sit between her wings and looking at Brom expectantly.

"Right, right. Brom and Saphira are on their way back, I ran ahead to make sure the rest of the bags were ready when I heard the clicking. You're lucky I came back when I did, huh?" Brom said, chuckling when Ruby just shook her head and walked out of the hut, grabbing the rest of the bags and hoisting them over his back.

"Not lucky, they were amateurs. Even a first-year could have beaten them." Ruby said over her shoulder, eyes scanning the forest warily for their opponents, and taking an experimental sniff to conclude that, wherever they ran, they weren't interested in coming back for a second try.

"Right. Still would have been difficult to finish either of them off with how short your claws are." Brom pointed out, smirking when Ruby turned to glare at him. "Death by a thousand cuts maybe?"

"Hmph. They were rearing up to flee anyway, the tall one, the one who side-stepped you, he was a lot smarter than his buddy. The short one thought cornering me was a good idea. Considering I probably took an eye out, he's likely regretting that now, huh?" Ruby said, turning her attention back onto the path and walking away, whilst Brom just shook his head, lighting a torch and throwing it into the hut, only waiting a few moments to ensure that the building would catch on fire but not spread to the forest, before adjusting his own bags and following his companion.

"That he may be, but don't take them lightly. What they lack in tactical prowess they more than make up for with strength, speed and mental defences." He roted off, surprised when Ruby snorted.

"I-" Ruby had to stifle another snort. "-I swear it's not you. But, seriously, they were meant to be fast? When he ran off with his partner in tow he was pretty quick, but during the fight they were slower than...well...than Jaune!" Ruby said, uncaring that Brom wouldn't know Jaune, letting herself laugh at the absurdity of how Brom could consider them fast.

"Well excuse me, but for us mortals, they are downright lethal, since they've been said to have the strength, speed, stamina, etcetera on a level equal to elves." Brom said, openly glaring when Ruby snorted again.

"If that's how fast elves are, I really don't think I'll be having a problem here." Ruby said easily, as if the idea of combat no longer scared her, a dangerous sentiment, and one that Brom exploited mercilessly.

"I'm sure that's how Galbatorix feels." He said, watching Ruby snap her head around in surprise. "He's very powerful, and for all you say about your confidence, you were crippled by my own little mental probe. You may be more than his equal in physical combat, of that I shall give you, but he has the mental fortitude to lay you low easily. Do not let yourself fall into believing you will be safe here, for until you can defend your mind from me, you will be as vulnerable as any other."

His lesson imparted, Brom stepped past the stunned Ruby, pushing his way through the brush quickly, leaving Ruby to ponder that new perspective. She had to admit, fighting the Ra'zac had gotten to her head, and she was grateful for Brom bringing her out of her mindset before it could blindside her. He could have done it with more tact, but she liked how he could be compared to Yang, ripping the scab off with no fuss and no warning, no time to flinch or try to get away from what was coming.

Didn't mean she had to like him for the action itself though.

* * *

After regrouping with Eragon and Saphira, the two humans mounted up on horses Brom had procured from somewhere, and with only a single glance at his home for Eragon, they set off southwards. The plan, which Brom reluctantly shared with Ruby when she made the case that should something happen to him, Ruby would be able to continue their journey without him, being to travel to Teirm and board a boat to Reavstone, whilst also finding some information he wanted, then make their way through Surda and join up with the Varden in the Beor mountains.

Of course, Brom picked that moment to go from being reasonable to totally unfair, refusing to reveal the location of the Varden directly, despite the fact that just telling her the Beor Mountains was where they were was like demanding she find a dust deposit just by stamping on the ground.

Their planned journey was abruptly thrown off the rails by Eragon of all people, who began experiencing visions, or hallucinations, or something strange, and a feeling of needing to go to Gil'ead, a town far further east than their original route. When asked to describe the vision, he described what could only be called a dungeon, and an elf with raven-black hair, slanted eyes, and torture wounds adorning her body.

After all but forcing Eragon to describe her in detail, Brom reluctantly changed their route to go through the town eventually, but still keeping some of the original idea. They would still head to Teirm, as Brom deemed the information he wanted too valuable to ignore, but they would then travel on foot to Gil'ead to attempt a recovery of the elf.

After a few weeks of travel, Ruby saw for the first time the true majesty of a medieval-style town. She'd seen walled cities before, of course, Vale being the prime candidate, but there was something different about seeing a sight Ruby had always been resigned to looking at through story-book descriptions and depictions.

Large stone walls ringed the city and stopped a little ways into the water on one side of the town, visible from miles around, and Ruby could see the densely packed buildings stuffed into the walls, reminding her of home, and how densely crammed together some of the lower-income regions were, full of people desperate to hide from the Grimm, accepting being packed in like sardines simply for security against the Grimm.

Unfortunately for the two dragons, entering a town would be probably a bad idea, so they waited outside, Saphira nervously pawing her way around, anxious from being separated from her rider and having to let him enter an unfamiliar town for any reason, whilst Ruby worked to try and reassure the nervous dragon, though she still disliked having Saphira talking to her from seemingly inside her head.

Not to say Ruby was adverse to it, it was just...uncomfortable for her, the unfamiliar feeling not one that Ruby relished. It helped that Ruby had spent some time on their journey in the forest with Saphira, having to walk away from the road to avoid being seen by travellers and thus having nothing better to do than talk with the dragon, and while she couldn't say she felt a kinship with the dragon, mostly due to her still identifying herself as human, she could definitely appreciate the company, and, if the happy tone she often spoke in was an indication, Saphira was also glad for the company.

The only thing that really irritated the crimson dragon was that she still, no matter how hard she tried, could not communicate mentally. Even after long nights spent attempting to speak a single word to any member of their party, Ruby simply could not do so, much to her chagrin. It baffled Saphira, who did it as easily as breathing, and perplexed Brom, though he quickly shoved it onto the pile of oddities Ruby was swiftly accumulating.

* * *

"Brom!"

The man at the counter brightened up at the sight of his old friend entering his humble book-shop.

"Jeod." The grizzled rider returned eloquently. Closing the door behind himself, he allowed himself a moment of weakness, slumping against the doorframe and sighing. "I wish I could have just come on a social call, but trouble is brewing, and I need information."

Gazing at his old friend and shaking his head, Jeod put on a small smile. "If only, eh? Well, I have plenty of books, though from the look of you, books likely don't contain the information you seek, hmm?"

"They may, but it's unlikely, yes. I need two specific parts of information. Firstly, anything you can muster on the Ra'zac." At Jeod's eyebrows rising and mouth opening, Brom raised a hand to forestall his questions. "They attacked me and a...companion of mine, and I need to know everything about them, since I fear that will not be the only time we cross paths."

"But-" Brom said, leaning forwards, "-I also need information on dragon abnormalities. Dragons which spoke physically rather than mentally. Dragons who claim to have come from another life. Any abnormalities like that, I need to know everything about the dragons involved."

"Well, you definitely never bring me simple requests, do you Brom? I can't say I know of any dragons like that off the top of my head, and I'm not dumb enough to even ask about why you need this information, hmm?" Jeod said, smirking when Brom shook his head. "Thought as much. I'll see what I can do. The Ra'zac are a tough request as well, but, again, I'll see what I can scrounge up. Though, for this, I do have a request."

Quirking an eyebrow, Brom gestured his hand for Jeod to continue. "I need to get Helen and me out of Teirm. My ships have been going missing left, right and centre, and it's far too common to write off as some misfortune. Somebody knows about my connection to the Varden, and has been sabotaging me."

"I'll see what I can do, but I can't make promises. The best I can offer is either you come with my and mine and head to the Varden, or I find an opportunity for you and Helen to slip onto a boat to Surda and escape that way." Brom said carefully, already mulling over ways to do so in his mind.

"I'd take anything at this point Brom, thank you."

"You're welcome Jeod. Now, about those books..."

* * *

**By the way, Ruby's size in this story. She grows slower than other dragons, so while Saphira is capable of flight, Ruby is still too small for it. When she had the fight with the Ra'zac the first time, she was about...I'd say a little smaller than a horse. The fact is, don't expect her growth to make sense. I don't believe it's ever made clear at what exact rate dragons grow at in IC, so Saphira is going to stick kinda close to Canon, but I'm just doing whatever I feel like with Ruby.**

**Next Chapter: **

**I actually need to talk about this, because I feel like going back to my original method, and the method I use for my random stories, is a better idea than what I'm doing now.**

**All stories will now be uploaded at random!**

**That's not to say I'm going to slack off on writing, I'll just be writing more for the stories I prefer, and less for the ones I don't. I won't be cancelling any of them, but it might end up that certain stories don't get a new chapter for a month whereas another had four uploads in a week.**


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